PWCS “Debt” and Budget
January 1, 2012 — pwceducationreformEvery year about this time the school division begins preparing its budget for next year. The budget is a little confusing, and with over 100 pages of detail, kind of cumbersome. We’ll try to keep you aware of things we notice as the budget is released. Before we get into the details of the budget we wanted to review one item in particular which is the source of much debate and misunderstanding – our debt, debt service costs, and the CIP. Our source document for the numbers presented here is the 2011 Comprehensive Annual Report of Prince William County Schools, the audit of the financial operations associated with the 2010 – 2011 school year which you can find at the link or on the PWCS web site.
First things first – PWCS is audited every year and has received an unqualified opinion every year for as long as I can remember. An unqualified opinion is frequently referred to as a “clean opinion” but what it really means is that the auditors did not find anything in their examination which leads them to believe PWCS’s financial statements are